Visions and Letters

Over half way through the Life now. A number of interesting things in the paragraphs since my last post. For one, the son of Gamaliel has had it in for Josephus. In fact Josephus seems to have narrowly escaped death at the order of the high priest Ananus (who killed James the brother of Jesus). This was the first time I read past my allotted 34 paragraphs without realizing it (normally I am longing for my allotment to end).

Several examples of the letter form in this section.

The most significant thing is the vision Josephus gets in 208. It is very similar to that Paul gets in Acts 23:11. Indeed, there are a great number of formal similarities in such things between Acts and Josephus. It does not seem likely that Josephus had read Acts. But Life was not written until after AD100, and I have never thought to date Acts so late so as to have read Josephus. The only conclusion I know to draw at this time is that the conventions of history writing were very commonly used and that both Acts and the Life partake of many similar forms.